Following the introduction of electronic metering, utility providers now have the capability of varying prices between times of low and high electricity demand. As a result, electricity rates for residential, commercial and industrial customers can vary by time-of-day. For example, Time of Day metering (TOD) involves dividing the day, month and year into tariff slots and with higher rates at peak load periods and low tariff rates at off-peak load periods. TOD metering normally splits rates into an arrangement of multiple segments including on-peak, off-peak, mid-peak or shoulder, and critical peak, but this metering also enables more dynamic pricing such as real time prices reflective of actual fluctuations in market supply and demand. The times of high and low demand/cost will vary in different markets around the world. While the electricity rate schedule can be used to automatically control usage on the part of the customer, it is often simply the customer's responsibility to control their own usage, or pay accordingly. One approach for a customer to save on the electrical bills is to reduce lighting intensity or shift appliance usage away from time slots with high electricity rates, especially when higher intensity of usage is not needed and increase usage during the periods of lowest prices,
There are light switches with dimmer functionality to meet energy efficiency requirements and customer lighting preferences. A variety of means are available to control the diming of lights, including rotational knobs, mechanical sliders, buttons, and more recently, solid state touch-sensitive electrical switches which can be manually operated by a user to increase and decrease the light intensity. There are also light switch apparatuses available to turn on or off the lights according to a preprogramed schedule or triggered by a sensed event, such as detected motion or sound. However, there are no convenient approaches for automating the adjustment of lighting intensity according to highest and lowest electricity rate schedules while informing a user of the electricity rate change in a straightforward and intuitive manner. The currently available light switch apparatuses also do not provide highest and lowest electricity-price related information using visual or audible signals to assist users to optimize cost saving by using the time-dependent electricity price information to make better usage decisions.
Standalone devices to provide price information or other events have been demonstrated to significantly decrease energy usage from less advantageous price periods to more advantageous price periods, which may be scheduled or ad hoc.
Therefore, there is continued need for systems that provide users automated and convenient means to save cost according to the highest and lowest electricity rates or other information and/or provide straightforward means to inform the end users of the time-dependent electricity prices.